The flag of Iowa was adopted on March 12, 1921. The flag is rectangular with three vertical stripes: the stripe on the left is blue, the stripe on the right is red, and the larger center stripe is white. A bald eagle appears in flight in the white stripe, holding a blue ribbon with the following white text: “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” The word “IOWA” is also included towards the bottom of the white stripe in red capitol letters.
Although the state of Iowa was admitted to the Union on December 28, 1946, it was not until the United States entered World War I that Iowans felt the need for a state flag. It was expected that Iowans would fight in state regiments, as in previous wars, and Iowans finally desired a banner to designate their respective units. Fortunately, the Iowa Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution was interested in designing a state flag.
On May 11, 1917, members of the Society as well as Mrs. Dixie Gephardt, the flag’s designer, presented the flag before the State Council on National Defense. The Council approved the flag, after which the Daughters of the American Revolution manufactured and presented Iowa flags to each of the Iowa National Guard regiments. Unfortunately, shortly after the flag was approved, the U.S. War Department adopted a policy assigning soldiers to military regiments without regard to state residency, and the Iowa flags were not used during the war. Still the Iowa flag was used by the State National Guard and is still used today.
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